2,309 research outputs found
Higgs transitions of spin ice
Frustrated magnets such as spin ice exhibit Coulomb phases, where
correlations have power-law forms at long distances. Applied perturbations can
cause ordering transitions which cannot be described by the usual Landau
paradigm, and are instead naturally viewed as Higgs transitions of an emergent
gauge theory. Starting from a classical statistical model of spin ice, it is
shown that a variety of possible phases and transitions can be described by
this approach. Certain cases are identified where continuous transitions are
argued to be likely; the predicted critical behavior may be tested in
experiments or numerical simulations.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figures; v2: published version with minor changes;
ancillary file "Figures3D.nb" is a Mathematica (v7) notebook containing
figures as rotatable 3D graphics (see http://www.wolfram.com/cdf-player/ for
a free viewer
Mechanical properties of brittle materials
Brittle materials are difficult to tensile test because of gripping problems. They either crack in conventional grips or they are crushed. Furthermore, they may be difficult to make into tensile specimens having, for example, threated ends or donut shapes. To overcome the problem, simple rectangular shapes can be used in bending (i.e., a simple beam) in order to obtain the modulus of rupture and the elastic modulus. The equipment necessary consists of a fixture for supporting the specimens horizontally at two points, these points contact points being rollers which are free to rotate. The force necessary to bend the specimen is produced by a tup attached to the crosshead of an Instron machine. Here, the experimental procedure is explained
Microarcsecond Radio Imaging using Earth Orbit Synthesis
The observed interstellar scintillation pattern of an intra-day variable
radio source is influenced by its source structure. If the velocity of the
interstellar medium responsible for the scattering is comparable to the
earth's, the vector sum of these allows an observer to probe the scintillation
pattern of a source in two dimensions and, in turn, to probe two-dimensional
source structure on scales comparable to the angular scale of the scintillation
pattern, typically as for weak scattering. We review the theory on
the extraction of an ``image'' from the scintillation properties of a source,
and show how earth's orbital motion changes a source's observed scintillation
properties during the course of a year. The imaging process, which we call
Earth Orbit Synthesis, requires measurements of the statistical properties of
the scintillations at epochs spread throughout the course of a year.Comment: ApJ in press. 25 pages, 7 fig
Obstructions to Lagrangian concordance
We investigate the question of the existence of a Lagrangian concordance between two Legendrian knots in R3. In particular, we give obstructions to a concordance from an arbitrary knot to the standard Legendrian unknot, in terms of normal rulings. We also place strong restrictions on knots that have concordances both to and from the unknot and construct an infinite family of knots with nonreversible concordances from the unknot. Finally, we use our obstructions to present a complete list of knots with up to 14 crossings that have Legendrian representatives that are Lagrangian slice
Leaf Traits Within Communities: Context May Affect the Mapping of Traits to Function
The leaf economics spectrum (LES) has revolutionized the way many ecologists think about quantifying plant ecological trade-offs. In particular, the LES has connected a clear functional trade-off (long-lived leaves with slow carbon capture vs. short-lived leaves with fast carbon capture) to a handful of easily measured leaf traits. Building on this work, community ecologists are now able to quickly assess species carbon-capture strategies, which may have implications for community-level patterns such as competition or succession. However, there are a number of steps in this logic that require careful examination, and a potential danger arises when interpreting leaf-trait variation among species within communities where trait relationships are weak. Using data from 22 diverse communities, we show that relationships among three common functional traits (photosynthetic rate, leaf nitrogen concentration per mass, leaf mass per area) are weak in communities with low variation in leaf life span (LLS), especially communities dominated by herbaceous or deciduous woody species. However, globally there are few LLS data sets for communities dominated by herbaceous or deciduous species, and more data are needed to confirm this pattern. The context-dependent nature of trait relationships at the community level suggests that leaf-trait variation within communities, especially those dominated by herbaceous and deciduous woody species, should be interpreted with caution
Parameter Estimation with Mixed-State Quantum Computation
We present a quantum algorithm to estimate parameters at the quantum
metrology limit using deterministic quantum computation with one bit. When the
interactions occurring in a quantum system are described by a Hamiltonian , we estimate by zooming in on previous estimations and by
implementing an adaptive Bayesian procedure. The final result of the algorithm
is an updated estimation of whose variance has been decreased in
proportion to the time of evolution under H. For the problem of estimating
several parameters, we implement dynamical-decoupling techniques and use the
results of single parameter estimation. The cases of discrete-time evolution
and reference-frame alignment are also discussed within the adaptive approach.Comment: 12 pages. Improved introduction and technical details moved to
Appendi
Ionospheric Power-Spectrum Tomography in Radio Interferometry
A tomographic method is described to quantify the three-dimensional
power-spectrum of the ionospheric electron-density fluctuations based on
radio-interferometric observations by a two-dimensional planar array. The
method is valid to first-order Born approximation and might be applicable to
correct observed visibilities for phase variations due to the imprint of the
full three-dimensional ionosphere. It is shown that not the ionospheric
electron density distribution is the primary structure to model in
interferometry, but its autocorrelation function or equivalent its
power-spectrum. An exact mathematical expression is derived that provides the
three dimensional power-spectrum of the ionospheric electron-density
fluctuations directly from a rescaled scattered intensity field and an incident
intensity field convolved with a complex unit phasor that depends on the w-term
and is defined on the full sky pupil plane. In the limit of a small field of
view, the method reduces to the single phase screen approximation. Tomographic
self-calibration can become important in high-dynamic range observations at low
radio frequencies with wide-field antenna interferometers, because a
three-dimensional ionosphere causes a spatially varying convolution of the sky,
whereas a single phase screen results in a spatially invariant convolution. A
thick ionosphere can therefore not be approximated by a single phase screen
without introducing errors in the calibration process. By applying a Radon
projection and the Fourier projection-slice theorem, it is shown that the
phase-screen approach in three dimensions is identical to the tomographic
method. Finally we suggest that residual speckle can cause a diffuse intensity
halo around sources, due to uncorrectable ionospheric phase fluctuations in the
short integrations, which could pose a fundamental limit on the dynamic range
in long-integration images.Comment: 8 pages; Accepted for publication in Ap
Exact results for SU(3) spin chains: trimer states, valence bond solids, and their parent Hamiltonians
We introduce several exact models for SU(3) spin chains: (1) a
translationally invariant parent Hamiltonian involving four-site interactions
for the trimer chain, with a three-fold degenerate ground state. We provide
numerical evidence that the elementary excitations of this model transform
under representation 3bar of SU(3) if the original spins of the model transform
under rep. 3. (2) a family of parent Hamiltonians for valence bond solids of
SU(3) chains with spin reps. 6, 10, and 8 on each lattice site. We argue that
of these three models, only the latter two exhibit spinon confinement and a
Haldane gap in the excitation spectrum
Efficient solvability of Hamiltonians and limits on the power of some quantum computational models
We consider quantum computational models defined via a Lie-algebraic theory.
In these models, specified initial states are acted on by Lie-algebraic quantum
gates and the expectation values of Lie algebra elements are measured at the
end. We show that these models can be efficiently simulated on a classical
computer in time polynomial in the dimension of the algebra, regardless of the
dimension of the Hilbert space where the algebra acts. Similar results hold for
the computation of the expectation value of operators implemented by a
gate-sequence. We introduce a Lie-algebraic notion of generalized mean-field
Hamiltonians and show that they are efficiently ("exactly") solvable by means
of a Jacobi-like diagonalization method. Our results generalize earlier ones on
fermionic linear optics computation and provide insight into the source of the
power of the conventional model of quantum computation.Comment: 6 pages; no figure
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